Battle of Stadtlohn

The Battle of Stadtlohn was a major battle of the Thirty Years' War which occurred on 6 August 1623 in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. Christian of Brunswick's Protestant Palatine army was decisively defeated by Count Tilly's Catholic League forces, ending the Palatinate campaign and nearly the war as a whole.

Background
In the summer of 1623, having recovered from his defeat at the Battle of Fleurus a year earlier, Christian of Brunswick led a 15,000-strong Protestant German army out of the Netherlands, attempting to invade Bohemia and join forces with the Transylvanian lord Gabriel Bethlen, who had once again risen up against the Holy Roman Empire. However, Christian found no support among any other Protestant prince or even Ernst von Mansfeld's mercenary army, and the Protestant army - deep in enemy territory and without support - decided to withdraw. It was then that the Imperial army under Count Tilly decided to attack the weaker Protestant force at Stadtlohn.

Battle
On the day of the Feast of the Transfiguration, the Protestants fortified themselves on a hilltop and attempted to fight a defensive battle. However, the Catholic attack broke the Protestants' cavalry wings and forced Christian's cavalry to rout, forcing the Protestant infantry to flee as they were surrounded. The Protestant infantry were overrun as they attempted to fall back, and 6,000 of them were killed, while 4,000 were captured. Shortly after the defeat, Frederick V of Palatinate was forced to sign an armistice with the Holy Roman Empire, ending the Palatinate campaign.